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Why do repeat prescriptions take 2 days?

With so many people taking medication on a regular basis our practice has to deal with 150 to 200 requests for repeat medication every working day.

Each request has to be checked by the person dealing with the request against the patient's records to ensure that it is legitimate and appropriate. When that has been confirmed the prescription is printed.

The prescriptions are then sorted so that the doctor responsible for the prescription can be presented with it for checking and signing.

Prescriptions are usually signed at about 11am each day when doctors have finished their first morning surgery. They are then resorted according to whether they are to collected from the surgery, posted, dispensed or sent to the local pharmacy.

Many requests generate queries or problems that need a doctor to spend a considerable amount of time sorting out, sometimes by phoning the patient back about it. To do this job efficiently takes about 48 hours. Of course, in an emergency we can produce a prescription quickly, but the disruption it causes to the smooth running of things only causes more delay for other patients.